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From: Gary Owen
Confirmed: monkees
Date: 01 Feb 2010
Time: 23:43:11 -0500
Remote Name: 98.113.12.182
Monkee Fan, Thanks for your opinion. 'Tis good to get all kinds of feedback but let me express what this show is about. First, it's still in it's infancy and a lot of the chatter and trivia between songs hasn't been worked out yet. Musically speaking, the show is most certainly geared towards the die hards who have been ignored for way too many years. It's not like we didn't do any hits during the set (we opened with "A Little Bit Me, a Little Bit You") and many common album tracks were spread out perfectly throughout the night. We did not notice many people leaving early (we could see the entire room from where we were) and when the lights came up at the end- plus judging by the amount of people who came over to speak with us after- the place was still essentially full. Sure, the casual fan is going to get uptight by not hearing the same old boring played out songs up front but they should have realized that it is a MARATHON and that means it's going to be a long show and will feature material they have never known existed. Also, how many times can people listen to the same five hits over and over? We want no part of that so we saved them for the encore. Had we performed them early then the place would have probably dwindled to half and what good is that? One of the keys to entertaining is to keep your audience in anticipation and that's exactly what we did. As for it being scheduled on a Sunday night, BB King's offered that date as it was the only one they had available (as if we were going to turn it down?). Many people told us how much they loved the trivia and the stupid joking around. A few even mentioned that we made everyone feel right at home and relaxed. That was a very nice compliment right there. Even though the show is geared towards us die hards, it's good to give some insight to the songs for the casuals as they hear a tune for the very first time. Maybe they will care (many surely did) or maybe not. Up to them. However, simply put, the casual fan has been catered to long enough and for once, we are trying to give the Monkee world a different type show. I must say it was quite refreshing to look out into the audience and see many people singing along to songs like "All Of Your Toys", "Some Of Shelly's Blues" and the one you like "If I Ever Get To Saginaw Again". As if any bands are out there performing those tunes or any of the obscure tunes we did? Besides some solo Micky Dolenz shows, David Jones picking a fight with the audience at an off solo performance and some Tork performances with Shoe Suede Blues, there is essentially nothing going on in the Monkee world these days and we hope to sort of fill that void in a big way. We like the notion of giving the audience an education on the music and history of the Monkees. It's fun and people who attend are interested. No show is ever perfect and there will always be people who have a problem with something but just as Rick Nelson once sang: you can't please everyone, so you have to please yourself.........and catering to die hards makes the Blue Meanies happy campers! Besides that, the powers that be at BB King's loved it as well. :) Gary Owen (Blue Meanies).